1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to safety equipment and more particularly to protective guards for use on a roof to cover a skylight and to prevent objects or people from falling through the skylight.
2. Background Art
Skylights are panels that can include a transparent or a translucent sheet of material spanning an opening defined in a roof. Skylights are commonly used to allow light to pass to area housed underneath the roof. Conventional skylights can be used with metal roof panels. In many applications, a roof can include a metal or other rigid material that will readily support the weight of a person walking on the roof. An opening can be formed in the roof material, and a skylight panel of a dissimilar material can be positioned on the roof spanning the opening. Skylights commonly include a plastic material.
One problem associated with skylights occurs when a person positioned on the roof inadvertently steps on, or places a heavy object on, the skylight. This may be due to a variety of reasons, including difficulty in visually identifying the skylight regions on a roof or carelessness. Oftentimes a worker may mistake the skylight for a structurally sound part of the roof and intentionally step on the skylight or place a heavy object onto the skylight. However, because the skylight is generally made of a less rigid material than the roof, the skylight can break due to the weight of the person or object, causing the person or object to fall through the roof panel. Falls of this type can result in serious injury or death to the person or to other persons positioned on the ground below the panel.
Others have attempted to provide structural guards to prevent people or objects from falling through skylights. For example, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0190050 provides a safety reinforced light transmitting panel assembly. Other types of conventional wire screens for guarding skylights are also known in the art. However, such skylight guards are generally adapted for use with curved or arched skylights, and are not compatible with flat panel skylights of the types used with corrugated metal roofing panels. Additionally, conventional skylight guards do not provide adequate strength for preventing falls through the skylight, and many conventional skylights do not comply with modern safety standards.
What is needed then are improvements in the devices and associated methods for preventing persons and objects from falling through skylights.